Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pudding Poke Cake

First up, I'm calling this a peanut butter poke cake, but I didn't actually use peanut butter. However, "chocolate and substitute peanut butter poke cake" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. And this tastes like peanut butter, so it's what people would think when you serve it.

But first, about the cake.

I had the urge to make this cake for quite some time. It started with a photo of a chocolate poke cake. But then I thought, gee, peanut butter would be fun. I love chocolate with peanut butter. But trying to shove plain peanut butter into the holes of a poke cake probably wouldn't be successful.

So then I decided that I needed to make a peanut butter pudding. That's something I've never made before, but it certainly seemed worth a try.

But! For the peanut butter, I used WowButter, which is a non-peanut, safe-for-schools product. There are more and more nut-free butters out there, which is a great thing for kids with allergies. This one is made from toasted soy nuts.

I used to buy toasted soy nuts as a snack, and the WowButter has a similar flavor when you taste it on its own. It has a nutty flavor without tasting like a specific nut. But the toasted flavor is a little more prominent than what I've noticed in standard peanut butters. It's a really nice toastiness.

But when the WowButter was used to make peanut butter pudding and then added to cake, I think most folks would just assume it's a nut butter. And that's a good thing.

For this particular cake, I used a box mix, but you could certainly use any chocolate cake recipe you like, as long as it's enough to fill a 9x13 pan.

Or you could make a smaller cake and use less pudding, like this wacky cake. Another smaller cake is Midnight chocolate cake, which is a little denser, and also very good.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Poke Cake

1 9x13 chocolate cake, freshly baked

For the peanut butter pudding:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup WowButter

For the whipped ganache frosting:
8 ounces (by weight) dark chocolate chips or bar chocolate, chopped
8 ounces heavy cream

The cake and pudding should be warm when they meet each other, so make the cake first, and start making the pudding while the cake is baking. You can take your time making the pudding, and if the cake isn't done when you're finished with the pudding, you can gently re-warm it.

To make the pudding:
Put the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and whisk to combine and break up any lumps. dd the cold milk and stir to combine, making sure there are no clumps of cornstarch.

Heat the mixture on medium heat until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Add the WowButter and stir to combine. This mixture needs to be thick enough to turn into pudding when it has cooled, but it also need to be thin enough to pour and seep into the holes you'll form in the cake. If it's too thick, you can add a little more milk to thin it to a pouring consistency.

To add the pudding to the cake:
Use the handle of a wooden spoon (or any implement of a similar size) to poke holes in the still-warm cake. I didn't count the number of holes, but you do want to make sure you have multiple holes per slice of cake.

Pour or spoon the pudding onto the cake, focusing on getting it into the holes in the cake. Make sure the pudding is going down into the holes and not just forming a pudding bubble above an empty hole. You can use a skewer to make sure the pudding is settling into the hole.

If you have a significant amount of pudding left, you can poke more holes into the cake and add more pudding.

Let the cake cool, then refrigerate it until it is chilled.

To make the whipped ganache frosting:
This is simple to make in a stand mixer, but you can also make it in a bowl with a hand mixer. Make the ganache after the cake is cool, and just before you want to frost.

My favorite 9x13 pan from Silverstone.

Put the chocolate into the bowl of your stand mixer fitting with the whipping attachment.

Heat the cream until it is simmering. Add it to the chocolate. With the mixer on low speed, "stir" the mixture until the chocolate is fully melted. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to make sure there are no lumps of chocolate stuck to the bottom or sides of the bowl.

Turn the mixer speed up a notch or two and continue mixing. This will help the chocolate cool a little faster. If you're using a bowl and hand mixer, it's probably easier to just let it cool rather than stand there mixing.

When the chocolate is cool, it will begin to thicken. Turn the mixing speed up and continue beating until the frosting is as light and fluffy as you like.

To finish the cake:
Remove the cake from the refrigerator. If there are pools of pudding on top, scrape or spoon the pudding off - it will make the frosting harder to spread if there's a thick layer on top.

Frost the cake. You can serve the cake immediately, or refrigerate to serve later. The ganache will get firmer when it is chilled. Keep any leftover cake refrigerated.

I received the WowButter at no cost to me as a sample; I wasn't required to use it in a recipe.

Frito Pie - It was never pie, and now it's a dip!

Last night I was watching a re-run of Hawaii 5-0 and the plot revolved around a surfer who was murdered. At the end of the show, a bunch of surfers paddled out into the ocean and formed a circle and spread the ashes of their deceased friend.

For me, it was a completely foreign ritual, and also very moving.

Particularly because a friend of mine had died suddenly, and I've been a bit weepy.

I started thinking about the rituals we have in our different cultures. Our religions and our ethnic groups and even our geographical locations dictate what sort of things we do when a friend or loved one dies, ranging from the mournful playing of a bagpipe, to a 21-gun salute at a military funeral, to the joyous celebration of life as it's done in New Orleans.

In those instances, mourners gather together to comfort each other in a way that is familiar to them. Different cultures have developed different rituals, but the purpose is the same. They help people move beyond the grieving to the point where they can think of their loved one with a smile and a fond memory.

Besides the usual geographic and familial cultural groups I'm a part of, I also belong to relatively new and unique culture. It spans many religions and nationalities and pays no attention to geography. We're a loosely connected and firmly knotted group of people who go online and bond over food and fun. We talk every day. We laugh, celebrate, kvetch, and sometimes cry. We are close friends, even though many of us have never met in person.

But when one of us dies, the rest of us can't hug or hold hands or perform rituals together. We can't eat funeral potatoes or hot dish or go to that one restaurant where everyone goes after a funeral. We're a new sort of tribe, we don't have those generations-old traditions, and we're not geographically close enough to get together for happy or sad events.

The funny thing is that new rituals have emerged, all by themselves. I guess people need a way to bond and celebrate the lives of those who have touched us. With our group, we talk about our friend's favorite food or their signature recipe. We choose a time to raise a glass in a tearful toast. We make their recipes. We post photos. And we are comforted because we know that despite the distance between us, we have a bond.

Don't those Fritos look happy in their chili and cheese spa?

My friend Chris Hughes, who recently died, was from Texas and one of her favorite foods was Frito Pie. So when we started talking about her recipes, people suggested that we make Frito Pie in her honor. I said, "Sure, I'll make it." Then I said, "What's Frito Pie?"

And I got a dozen or so answers. I looked it up on the Frito website. I asked more people. The only constants in the recipes were Fritos, chili, and cheese. Canned chili was a popular choice, with Wolf brand being a favorite among the Texans in the group, since it's a Texas product.

Some people put the chips on the chili, other people put the chili on the chips. Some people mixed it all up in a small bag of Fritos and ate it straight from the bag, and others put it in a casserole dish. Some people ate it with a fork or spoon. Some people layered it. Others mixed it. Some baked it and some didn't. And then there were toppings.

I was confused. It sounded like a cross between nachos and chilaquiles, but with chili and Fritos.

And then someone said that it doesn't matter - just make it the way you like it.

That totally sounded like what Chris would say, because she really liked to change or modify recipes to make them her own. When presented with the challenge to make a recipe from my cookbook, she turned blueberry and cream cheese sweet rolls into candied jalapeno and cream cheese rolls. I was totally impressed.

So I embarked on my Frito Pie adventure knowing that whatever I did would be okay.

My first attempt was with Fritos on the bottom, chili on top, followed by cheese. I baked it to melt the cheese, and topped it with onion, tomato, sour cream, and jalapenos. It was good, but I had leftover chili, so I decided to try something different for lunch the next day.

I didn't want to turn the oven on for a lunch portion, so I turned Frito Pie into a dip. I used a mini pie plate - hey, it's called pie, so why not - and put the chili and cheese in the microwave to warm them. And I scooped it up with crisp Fritos. Totally not like what anyone else told me to do.

Oh, and since I'm a midwesterner rather than a Texan, I used chili with beans. Apparently Chris was okay with that, too.

This one's for Chris!

Frito Pie

Wolf brand chili
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
Pickled jalapenos
Sour cream
Fritos

For a single serving, put the chili (as much as you think is one serving!) in a microwave-safe bowl, and add the cheese. As much cheese as you like. If you want to take a little of the "bite" out of the onions, you can add them as well.

Microwave on high for 30 to 60 seconds, until the chili is hot and the cheese is melted.

Add onions (if you didn't add them before cooking) tomatoes, jalapenos, and sour cream.

Use Fritos to scoop up the chili. I nestled three into the dish for photos, but grabbed chips from the bag for the rest of the scooping. Remember, there's no wrong way to do it!

Have you had Frito Pie? How do you like yours?

Can It Forward Day

Are you interested in canning? Want to learn more?

The fifth annual Can-it-Forward Day was August 1, 2015. If you're not familiar with it, I wrote about it here, and there's a recipe for a pretty amazing red pepper spread.

Wandering back to 2013, I wrote about it here, and there's a recipe for salsa you don't want to miss.

And you can come here to watch a recording of the official Can-it-Forward Day as soon as they get it uploaded. I'm pretty excited that I get to host it here this year. Kind of neat, yes?

Right there.

There was supposed to be a live broadcast on August 1, but due to technical difficulties on their end, it was recorded and will be available for you to watch here (and on their site), as soon as they get the bugs worked out.